


The Chaos Within

by hecatefromthedarkness



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-04-24 12:24:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4919491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hecatefromthedarkness/pseuds/hecatefromthedarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Caroline Alvarez began her internship eight years ago in Gotham City the resident in general surgery in charge told her that her mission as a surgeon was to rise above and that also apply to life in general. She also mentioned that no good deed goes unpunished. One good deed months ago got her into this mess.</p><p>Note: I fixed the space issue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Chaos Within

**Author's Note:**

> I do not owe any of these characters, they all belong to DC Comics and the genius minds of the Nolan brothers. I only owe my OC and she was inspired in other fictional character, so there you go.  
> I really hope you like this, and by the way this is a Barsad/OC story.

"Dr. Lawrence, please call it."

"Time of death 17:46."

Doctor Alvarez looked one last time to the interns, the medical staff and nurses before giving the sign to close the patient lying death in the operating table. 

The procedure consisted in suturing up a mayor artery, it wasn’t a simple surgery, but thousands of people survive it. A dozen of things could go wrong with this kind of surgery, improperly sedation of the patient, mal praxis. Not to mention the health of patient previous to the surgery. Was the patient overweight? Was he an alcoholic? Did he have cholesterol problems? In this case it was hard to know because he just had an accident and there was no time to run tests or put the patient on a diet. So he was rushed into the O.R. to close the wound and the artery before bleeding to death. 

Sadly he didn’t make it. 

As a surgeon, her job consisted in delivering Death’s ass on a silver platter and buy more time. Sometimes she wins, others not, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"We did everything we could." She said before going out of the Operation Room into the lavatory to wash the blood away and put on some clean scrubs.

"Lawrence you’re coming with me, we’re to notify the patient’s family about their lost."

God, she hated that part, having to inform the family of a deceased patient you couldn’t save their loved one, it didn’t matter how great you were, all those hours studying, past’s successes, you still had to tell them that you have failed and the patient died. Sometimes it didn’t matter, the best doctors, the best installations and the experience couldn’t beat death. 

After informing the relatives about the failure of the operation, of course it was followed by tears, she and Lawrence tried to explain them exactly what went wrong. Every time this happened she felt, a little like a failure and to her that was worse than guilt, in guilt there was a degree of involvement that was not as significant as in failure. 

At least they weren’t huggers, sometimes people did that, they were such state of shock with the news that they would hug you, she understood that, she had experienced those moments and few people knew how to respond. 

She didn’t like being hug or give hugs, even by people she cared, it wasn’t like a pathological thing, she just didn’t like to be hug, little less to be touched by strangers unless it was absolutely necessary.

She also didn’t like to have a lot of involvement with the patient or the relatives; she was supposed to be caring, understanding and to have good doctor’s manners, and she was, but only as a doctor.

Now the Process began. That was how she named it, when she began to review every single detail in her head from the moment she received the patient until he died on her operating table, trying to find exactly what went wrong.

Patient received, patient stable, blood pressure, cholesterol signs, weight, blood type, patient’s disease records if at hand, keep the interns inform, scrub, clean O.R. breath, remove makeup, remind my interns to make little to none mistakes. 

After reviewing, she always ended up with a slight headache and needed a drink. 

Her job was tiring and not easy at all, but she loved it, it could drive her mad, being a cardiothoracic surgeon was not easy or for everybody, surgery was hard on purpose. 

Aside from the hospital her favorite place in the whole world was just right across from the street, Joe’s Bar. More than half of the hospital staff went there to relax after a hard day of work.

When she went in she found usual scenery, the establishment had high wooden tables and chairs, with posters of old movies and neon signs, the lights always in medium to keep a private atmosphere, the bar was at the end and Joe or other of the barmen were behind it.

Her best friend and Sandra were having drinks, the lucky bastards finished a little early.

Mariah Roberts was almost as tall as Caroline, she had dirty blond hair and sad hazel eyes that could brighten up when she smiled or was happy. She was a neurosurgeon; they had met on their first day of internship at the hospital and hit it off right away.

Sandra Vitelli was sitting across from Mariah having a clear drink, she was a lot taller than Mariah almost six feet, had black hair, green eyes and had a full figure, had she not been a doctor, she could have earn her living as a full figure model. She was an orthopedic surgeon and very good at it.

Caroline said hello to the girls and went straight to the bar for drinks. Carl, Joe’s boyfriend attended her.

"The usual Doc?" 

"Yeap"

The usual consisted on orange juice with vodka. She decided that couldn’t afford a hangover, she had to wake up early the next day, so one drink would suffice.

Carl was quick with her drink and she passed him the money.

Mariah was to be married in two month, so probably she was talking about the wedding with Sandra, good because Caroline was not very fond of chats about weddings, even one as small as Mariah’s. She, of course as a best friend would play the part of the dutiful bridesmaid and would plan the bachelorette party, as for the rest, her mother would take care of it. 

"How is the patient?" Sandra asked.

"He didn’t make it." Carolina plainly responded. 

"Well…" both Mariah and Sandra groaned, they’ve there, they knew how this was.

"Talking wedding?" Caroline asked changing the subject as she sat on the chair next to Sandra.

"Actually no, but since you mentioned it, your mother wants to meet with the bridal party to choose the dresses." Mariah answered.

"What? When? I don’t understand she has my measures, and what’s so difficult? You just pick and ugly dress you will never wear again that goes with the decoration." She saw her best friend staring at her with no surprise; Sandra shook her head with a smirk on her face. "Did you wear yours again?" Caroline asked. "No." She answered to herself.

"Caroline, I know you’re happy I am happy and that I’m getting marry, but would at least pretend that you are exciting about the wedding? Plus, we went to all meeting for the planning of your wedding." 

"Fine, when do we have to meet to pick up the dresses?"

"This weekend."  
"Great, I’m looking forward to spend hours listening to my mother on how she’s going to die without grandchildren and no son-in-law while surrounded by chiffon." She said bitterly.

"It was your idea to lend me your mother, plus she has an excellent taste and barely bothers me with wedding stuff."

"I think she doesn’t want to go through the same thing she went when she was planning your wedding." Sandra added.

"Don’t remind me." Caroline grunted.

Caroline’s mother thought herself the victim, when was Caroline the one stood up on her wedding day. Her fiancé left her with a single note that read: I am sorry, but I cannot make you go through this. 

She brushed the memory and the feeling aside and continued her conversation with Sandra and Mariah, they talked of different topics. 

The time went by and her stomach reminded her that she hasn’t eaten anything since early afternoon; she watched the time and realized that it was a little late and she needed to buy groceries.

They all agreed that it was time to go; both Mariah and Sandra lived on main land so they took taxis to get to their homes. Caroline on the other hand lived on the island and her apartment was not so far from the hospital, the main reason for her to move so close to her work was she will always be the first to arrive when called and she loved to walk, add also the fact that her neighborhood was a quiet one in the north part of the island, away from all the noise of the downtown and hip places. The rent wasn’t so expensive which was a plus.

It was March, but the last winter was hard so the air was still cold, she was graceful for her choosing of clothing. She wore a blue blouse, a cream coat, a caramel cardigan in top of it all with a light blue scarf around her neck, blue jeans and dark brown flat boots, her hair of course behaved according to weather, so she had it all up with few wavy strands around her face.

Gotham’s streets weren’t the safest in the world, but since the Dent Act was passed they were less dangerous that didn’t keep her from carrying a stun gun in her bag, just in case somebody wanted to try his luck with her.

The traffic in this part of the town wasn’t as busy, so some streets were almost empty and quiet, it wasn’t necessarily a good sign, but this neighborhood was mainly occupied by elderly and working people. 

It was past nine PM, she needed to get to the grocery store before it closes at 9:30 PM, so she rushed her steps. 

She heard a noise, it sounded like a little mechanic whine, perhaps somebody had the T.V. a little too loud, she heard it again, this time a little louder and she stopped, it was clearly somebody in pain, paralyzed as she was, fought all her instincts to run away, but the doctor in her head kept insisting on checking to see if her help was needed. She reached a middle ground and looked for her stun gun on her bag and another mechanic whine came out of the alleyway, this time a lot louder.

"Who’s there? Is somebody hurt?" she asked loudly. "I’m going in and I hope someone is really hurt because I have a stun gun and I’m not afraid to use it." She continued.

She kept walking deep in it and right beside the big trash container she found a man sitting on the floor with his back against wall. He wore a strange mask that covered part of his face, it looked like a metallic spider, and his clothes looked like an unidentified military uniform. A costume, she thought, probably he was in a theme party and by the states of the wound above his left eye, he got into a fight.

She used the light from her cell phone to inspect the man better, as the blood poured down his face, she got a better look of the mask, it looked like a metallic jaws with big teeth coming out of his face, black and shiny, waiting to bite. Whoever designed this was an evil genius.

She got more close to him, by the desperation of his face, he was in great pain, his eyes kept closing and opening and his breathing was really heavy, his hand trembled while he pointed them to his mask and barely could make a cohering sound.

She always carried surgical butterfly stitches in her bag just in case of an emergency, so she searched for them.

"I don’t have ethyl alcohol with me, but I have some stitches and I need to close the cut in your forehead. This will hurt a little more."

She decided to talk to him, talking to patients always helped to distract them from some of the pain. 

She continued to close the wound pushing the skin together as much as she could to stop the bleeding.

He kept on pointing his hands at the mask and she saw his mask was broken.

"Don’t worry you can always buy a new one or repair this one." It was always surprising what people came to care about when they were injured and couldn’t think straight. She finished stitching the wound that was already a bit swollen. 

"Good, you did well, now I need to you concentrate for a minute on my finger and follow it with your eyes I need to check if you have a mayor contusion in your head." That seemed to catch his attention and he followed her directions while she moved her index finger from side to side.

"Well, it seems you’re fine, but we need to run some scans to make sure, I’m going to call an ambulance to take you to the hospital, you probably have more wounds to tent to."

"NO." He said loud and clear.

"You’re one of those, right?" In Gotham many preferred to heal their wounds with their devices outside the hospital because they had problems with the authorities, she was used to it. "But you still need to go to the hospital." She insisted.

"I’M FINE." he screamed again sounding like a wail.

"No, you’re not." She said firmly.

His eyes panicked and he tried without much success to fix his mask.

"Look, if you want I can look for help and tell people that you fell. I would believe it, I mean, look at you, you’re what? 6’4, 6’5 and built like a wrestler, one would have to be either stupid or crazy to fight someone like you. The hospital is not that far from here I’ll see if I can find some help and make your story more believable. "

She went out of the alleyway to see if she could find a couple of strong guys to help her carry him. She walked a few blocks until she reached Joe’s bar again. She convinced two tall guys to help her, she told them she was a doctor and Carl’s nod confirmed her story to them.

By the time they returned to the alley he was gone, only her bag lying open on the floor and a blooded hand print on the wall.

They looked all around the alley and found no one.

She watched the time in her cell phone, it was past ten. Great, she was hungry, the grocery shop was already closed and she just lost another patient.


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is chapter 2, I hope you like it and thank you for reading.  
> By the way this story will a slow burning.

Barsad was standing in the Hospital’s entrance; it was a immense six stories building, people came and went out of hospitals without being noticed, so it wasn’t difficult for him to remain out of the loop, he could be there to visit a relative, a friend or even to look for some medical information.

Many nurses and doctors were walking and running from here to there. The muttering of all the orders and conversations were heard all at once making impossible to understand. The walls were painted in white and soft blue like most hospitals; the colors were used to make people calm and peaceful. Nurses wore grey or light green uniforms and doctors wore blue ones beneath the usual white coat.

He found a big board in the hospital reception that showed and detailed all the different departments of the hospital, according to the information, the surgical floor was the third one, he was sure he would find The Target there. 

A few days ago he broke into the hospital database, The Target began her surgical internship eight years ago, she was 32 years old and her residency scores was one of the highest ones.

Usually when Barsad was in an undercover mission that only required identify and collect information he would dress as a civilian to avoid suspicions, he wore a blue shirt with a black jacket, old jeans and black combat boots under it.  
True to be told he felt a little naked, he didn’t have a single weapon with him, he heard somewhere that a while ago the hospital was the stage of a shooting and the police used to do checkings once in a while. 

He walked into the nearest elevator and pressed three, behind him several people got in, a nurse and two other civilian. He noticed the elevator opened both ways.

Bane didn’t give him much information about The Target or what was she been investigated for. Only the photograph from the hospital identification Bane burrowed from her a little more than a month ago when he met her. He was very specific about finishing this job before the main operation began to take place in the city.

According to hospital I.D. her name was Caroline Alvarez, cardiothoracic surgeon. The picture showed a woman with olive skin, brown eyes and dark brown hair. 

Just outside the elevator he found the waiting room and a nurses’ station. Several people were there, including what appeared a family that was having a heated conversation, they looked nervous, waiting for news about their relative. He sat in one of the chairs, took one of the magazines laid on the coffee table and pretended to read, once in a while when he caught the glimpse of a blue uniform he would look up from the magazine. 

Identify and collect information could be a boring job and required much patience, luckily if there was something Barsad had in abundance was patience. He could spend days on the top of a roof, watching through the telescopic sight with his finger in his rifle’s trigger waiting for the right moment to take the hit.

He felt grateful, after so many months he had an excuse to climb out of the sewers to the surface in daylight. On contrary to the rest of his brothers that were all over the city pretending to do constructions and reparation works, he spent most of his time assisting Bane and making sure everything run according to plan.

After a long while, nurses and doctors came and went to the waiting room to inform people about the surgeries and the state of their relatives and friends, he finally saw his target. It was a little difficult to identify her at first, she wore a surgical cap on her head and the surgical mask covered her face. 

She approached to the family who were having the argument before, they all stood up and apparently she brought good news because of the relieve faces they made.

From this distance Barsad deducted the doctor stood no more than 5’5. Her face was passive and serene. Very professional he thought to himself.

Barsad came closer while she kept talking to the family, despite the good news they kept on arguing and this time the conversation got even heater.

"Hey." The doctor interrupted loudly and everybody quieted. "Mr. Wells needs quiet and peace, he’ll be out of the ICU in a few hours, you people need to calm down, if you don’t, I’ll tell the hospital security not to let you visit him. Even though the surgery went well, his heart is still in a delicate condition and it’s not ready to stressful situation like the one you’ve been having for days now." She scowled with a firm voice. "Understood?" concluded. 

Everyone nodded their heads looking a little ashamed and sat down this time quiet. 

Despite her serene faces she seemed to have a strong character.

He saw her walk away into a room, he wanted to follow her in, but the locker room sign stopped him, so he went back to the waiting room. He saw doctors went in and out of the room as he waited.

He heard steps coming towards him. He looked up. It was a nurse.

"Excuse me, Sir, do you need anything?" she asked with a warm smile.

"No miss, I’m just waiting for someone, but thank you."

At that moment he saw her go out of the locker room, talking with another woman doctor, her same age, with long dark blonde hair.

He looked up to the nurse and offered her a smile. "I just saw the person I was looking for."

The Target had wavy brown hair tied in a low knot that reached her shoulders, over her blue uniform a white coat, just like the other doctor next to her, but her uniform was a darker shade of blue.  
He stood up and followed them to the elevator, getting in right after them, he moved to the back. Luckily it wasn’t just the three of them, that way he would look less suspicious.

He paid attention to their conversation.

"So, do you have no idea what the guys are preparing for Justin’s bachelor party." The Target asked.

"As far as I know, the guys are taking him to a bar, he says he doesn’t want anything extravagant, he’s been through this before." The dark blonde doctor replied.

"Well, I’ll have to find it out; we don’t wanna your future husband watching you dance in table tops." She said looking from side to side and back very quickly, without even sparing him a glance. "Or when the stripper gives you a lap dance." She whispered, but she was heard all the same and the other people laughed softly at her comment.

"I don’t want a stripper." 

"Sure you do."

"No, I don’t." The blonde insisted.

The elevator ding rang announcing they had reached destination. They went out, he followed.

"Why not?" The Target asked.

"I don’t want an oiled, sweaty half naked man dancing in top of me." Explained.

"What’s wrong with that? It’s their job and they have to eat."

He slowed down his pace; he didn’t wish to risk the mission, so he couldn’t keep on hearing the conversation. He went through swinging doors to realize he was in the cafeteria.

He watched them take trays, a couple of sandwiches and drinks, and paid to the cashier. The cafeteria was almost full, but there were some spare tables, they picked one and sat down to eat, he did the same, he found a table close to theirs and sat sideways to have a better vantage point scarifying a little hearing. 

"You’ll use a strip band and a tiara in your head." The Target said after swallowing a sandwich bite.

"What? No." The blonde refused and took a bite from her sandwich and swallowed. "Wait a minute, a stripper, strip band and a tiara? That doesn’t sound like you, it’s too girly. What’s going on?" she frowned.

"Very well, I’ll be honest, I got the idea from a list I read on the internet all the things I’m supposed to do as a bridesmaid."

"I just wanna drink and dance." The friend clarified taking a sip from her drink.

"Good." The Target sighed. "Because I don’t have the time or the patience to order penis shaped cookies." She added.

This made Barsad and her friend laugh.

Two more women, doctors too, sat at the table with them, one was tall, light blonde with blue eyes, and the other one was even taller, with curvy body, green eyes and black hair. Both carried food trays.

"Alvarez, how did the coronary bypass go?" the black haired one asked The Target.

"I rocked that O.R." She nodded with a smug smile. "And the patience is alive." She responded. "By the way, Mar’s bachelorette party is in two weeks."

"Why so far away from the wedding date?" The light blonde complained.

"I couldn’t find any closer date where most of us had some free time."

So The Target was going out in two weeks, it certainly be interesting watch her interact outside the work environment. Barsad made a mental note to find more information about this bachelorette party. 

A doctor joined them; he was tall, white, brown hair and had hazel eyes. He carried a drink in his hands.

"Guys."

"Novak." They all replied back.

The newcomer looked at Alvarez.

"Hey, have you heard anything about Mathews?"

"No, I haven’t and why should I? We split up three months ago."

"You mean he dumped you."

"Tell me Novak, how’s the parade of air-headed dolls you go out with. At least I have meaningful relationships with smart people."

"And they both dumped you." He chuckled.

"You don’t know that and by the way, how’s Rose?" This question seemed to stroke a nerve at the man.

"Guys, would you stop fighting?" The blonde with blue eyes said sitting next to the dark haired woman.

"He started it." She complained. 

"I’m sure you two will find someone to spend the rest of yours lives with and be happy." affirmed the light blonde with a bright smile.

"Shup up." Alvarez and Novak spat at the same time.

"You two were lucky." The man said "I like ’em tall and dark haired and I like blondes with big smiles, let’s get married." He mocked in high pitched, imitating a feminine voice.

"Yeah. Everything was sugar, flowers and rainbows for the two of you." The Target added.

Barsad watched the three other women laugh. The blonde and the dark haired doctors gave each other a quick kiss on the lips and kept on smiling.

"All this sweetness is gonna make me sick." She said at the display.

"Why are you just attacking us? Roberts here will get married soon." The tall blonde said referring to The Target’s friend.

"Mar went through hell to be where she is." The Target explained. 

"Besides she has this gloomy personality about her." The man chuckled. 

"You two realized of your dynamic, you can attack at each other, but you don’t let anyone else to attack you, it’s like you’re brother and sister." The tall one noticed.

"Ha. He’d wish to share my genetic material, he’d be smarter." She took a sip from her drink.

"I am leaving now; I’ve got more important things to do than chit chat with you." He spat back as he left the table and walked away.

"I gotta go." The Target said as she looked her watch. "It’s time to scare the crap out of some interns."

"At least you don’t make them cry anymore." Roberts Said.

"What are you talking about? You freeze them to dead with your disapproving stare whenever they do or say something stupid."

"I don’t do that. Do I?" She asked in disbelieve at the other two doctors. 

The other blonde kept eating purposely avoiding the question. "The chief says your mother had the same stare." The dark haired one answered after taking a sip from her drink.

"Well, I never gave numbers to my interns." She said to The Target as she stood up to leave.

"And they earned their names back as soon as they started to make me happy, in the meantime they were one, two, three and four."

This made Barsad choke on laughter; he tried to drown it with a bite from his sandwich. At least in the league they let you keep your name.

Barsad waited a few seconds after she went out and follow her, always keeping his distance.

She asked the interns many questions and suggestions for some medical problems, some answered right in the first try others not, gaining a disapproval look from her, but at the end she was satisfied with their answers. 

A small dark skinned doctor woman approached her.

"Alvarez." She called her with authority.

"Dr. Jackson." She replied back with a sense of respect and reverence. 

"I need you to lend me one of your interns; I’ll be waiting in the lab."

"Sure." And the other doctor left.

Dr. Alvarez went back to her interns.

"Wilson, you will go to the clinic, Gonzalez and Lawrence will do the sutures at the pit, and you Francis will go with Dr. Jackson in the lab."

As she was giving them orders they were leaving except for the last one, who stood staring at the hallway in front of him.

"Didn’t you hear Dr. Francis? Dr. Jackson is waiting for you."

"Y. Yeah." He stuttered. 

"Don’t tell me you are afraid of Dr. Jackson?" She moved her head left to right like she didn’t believe what was happening. 

"Well she was your resident in charge." 

"Yes. So?"

"Well she was your resident in charge." He emphasized.

"What do you mean by that? Are you implying that since I am rough with the lot of you because she trained me she must be rougher?" She asked half amused by the situation. "Are you scared of me?"

"No Doctor, I’ve never said that, you are the best resident in this hospital, you make sure we all are prepared and well trained." He said praising her.

"Dr. Francis you’re breaking rule No. 1." She replied narrowing her eyes.

"We should not suck up because you hate us and that’s never going to change." He quoted.

"Good bye Dr. Francis."

Barsad was a little impressed not just by The Target, but about all the women in this hospital, he had met women with strong character before. Only one or two stood out in men dominated fields, here was different, but then again he had spent most of the lasts years in Africa and the Middle East.

Bane was waiting for him in the command center, installed in the city sewer system a few months ago when they arrived, it also served to supervise all city movement and hack some databases. It was a space fill with computers and monitors. 

His brothers were either doing some manual jobs, training or having dinner, they all were doing something and he couldn’t stop comparing all the ripple noise to the one at the hospital. 

Bane was sitting in a chair that looked like it barely could stand his weight. 

It was always cold down the sewers so Bane wore a long black sleeve sweater and his usual cargo pants.

"So, brother. What have you inquired about the Doctor?" The metallic voice filtered through the mask making Barsad remember the first time he talked to Bane. He had seen him before from a safe distance and he was both impressed and terrified because of the mask and his presence so demanding and authoritarian. It was later when he discovered the true nature and function of the mask.

"Her name is Caroline Alvarez, she is a surgeon at the hospital, she specializes in heart surgeries, apparently she excellent at it. Very professional, has a strong character. According to the information in the database, she got into the hospital internship program eight years ago; she has been standing out ever since. She scored one of the highest marks in the residency tests. Four years ago she became a surgical resident therefore she has interns in her charge. You and her could exchange tips for handling people." Barsad quipped with half a smile. "She is single, no boyfriend. Her best friend is about to be wed and she will be the bridesmaid, the party will be in a couple of weeks." He finished.

"Very well, Barsad, continue to follow her, find out where she lives and watch how she behaves outside the work environment." He paused. "I believe you will be attending a party in two weeks." Bane said.

"I thought that too." Barsad admitted, softly nodding his head.

He left bane alone with his thoughts, he had a lot think about. He reached his quarters and sad at the table where a rifle was disarmed, it was a new model he purchased in the black market a few months ago and it had just arrived. He couldn’t wait to use it. He also had different fire arms on the table, he hadn’t finished cleaning.

Generally Barsad never questioned any of Bane’s orders, but he felt curious for the reason Bane wanted him to investigate about the Doctor, after all this would be over in a few months. At the beginning he thought that perhaps Bane was infatuated by the Doctor but he shook that thought away, there was only one person in the world Bane could possible love, she was the reason they were all here doing what they were doing. 

He supposed Bane would let him know his intentions towards the Doctor on his own time. In the meantime he will focus in finding information about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read and review please.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun writing this, I hope you like it.

Three days after his visit to the hospital he followed her home, it was a ten story building in the north part of the island, just a few blocks from the hospital, by the time her shift finished it was mid morning, he had waited for her since early in the morning, apparently some last minute emergency made her stay a little longer in the hospital.

He couldn’t follow her inside the building; a doorman stood just crossing the door making sure that no one unannounced enters the building. He surrounded it until he found the back windows, unable to see from the ground her apartment floor; he climbed the emergency fire stairs of the next door building. Every floor he climbed he observed carefully trying to catch a glimpse of the insides, he kept on climbing until he saw her moving inside what seemed to be the living room, it was the fifth floor, on the right side of the building. She was taking off her jacket. 

He waited until two days later when she had another 24 hour shift to break in her apartment.

Getting inside was easier than he thought, he could have use the fire emergency stairs and break a window, but for some reason he didn’t wish to alarm her. Instead he climbed all the way to the roof and found out that an old lock in the roof door was the only thing keeping burglars outside the building. He managed to open the lock easily; he went down to the fifth floor making sure no one was there to spot him opening the door to her apartment. Her door lock was a little more complicated than the last, so it took him a few minutes to crack it open.

He turned the knob and pushed, he found a large room, it was the kitchen and the living room divided by a small round table for four people. The walls were painted in white except for one that was painted in red. 

To his right was the kitchen that consisted in a stove, fridge, cabinets and a counter that stretched around the kitchen area. Everything looked spotless like no one lived there.

The living room was a different story altogether. There was a TV set and right behind it was the red wall, beside the TV stood a five foot width bookshelf that almost reached the ceiling. Barsad looked at some of the titles, all medicine books except for the superior shelves, this caught his attention, most of the titles were in Spanish, the rest in English, all novels, poetry or short stories. He recognized some the titles in English, he had read them before in high school or after he joined the League. Most of his brothers didn’t share his reading habits but Bane, he always made time to read or knit.

In high school he learned a little French, in the army, Arabian and after he joined the League he learned Russian and Hindi in order to communicate and survive, he also learned a few words of different dialects from here and there due his many trips. From Spanish he knew very little, just enough to make a trivial conversation and maybe order food in a diner. He only went to South America once to deliver a guerrilla man who escaped from a local leader.

He took the oldest looking book, it was in Spanish, it looked like poetry by the structure of the words, in one of the pages there was a hand write inscription he could read. 

Para el amor de mi vida, Carolina. De tu padre, Antonio Alvarez.

Quickly, he put the book back.

Across from the bookshelf was a sofa looking at the TV and between a small coffee table with medical magazines and bills, in the table next to the sofa, a lamp and several portraits, Barsad took them one by one, the first one showed a picture of a family of three, a happy couple smiling with a girl between them, also smiling. The woman was blonde with green eyes and the man looked a lot like the doctor with brown eyes and the same wavy brown hair. The next picture looked taken a few years ago, they all wore blue medical uniforms, three women and two men, all smiling. He recognized the Target, her best friend and the man from the cafeteria, Dr. Novak, he haven’t seen the other two doctors. The last picture showed her and her best friend.

Right beside was her bedroom door, he went in and found a bed and two nightstands at each side of the bed with more books and a laptop. He opened the closet and looked in the upper shelf, a few boxes inside one of them some old clean surgical tools, consisting in pincers and scalpels and a stethoscope. 

He continued on searching through the closet when he heard some odd noise, he kept moving clothes from left to right when he found it, a skeleton, a human skeleton in the closet, this made Barsad laugh. She literally had a skeleton in her closet. Had she had any other profession and it would look a little suspicious.

After he finished searching her room, founding nothing out the ordinary he felt a little thirsty, he took the laptop and headed to the kitchen, he opened one of the cabinets and took a glass, he found a new, still unopened bottle of tequila and several boxes of cereal.

Inside the fridge was only milk, orange juice and bottles of water. There was absolutely nothing to eat but the cereal.

He poured himself a glass of juice and started the laptop, he checked through her history search and only found more medical information and surgical videos, some shopping sites. In her computer were the same things and some electronics books. He finished drinking the juice, washed the glass and put it back and put the laptop back in the nightstand.

Seemed like the Target lived a pretty normal and decent life, boring if he dared, she had a strange sense of humor, he’ll give her that. He had already checked for criminals records and found nothing. 

The only thing left to find out was the address of the bachelorette party. Whenever he had to go to a crowded place he always like to check it first to locate all the emergency exits or make a contingency plan. Something he had learned from previous missions of the League is that one must always be prepared for the worst, keep your eyes open, never take your sight off the Target, keep the calm and always, always find an emergency exit.

The party reminded him to buy proper clothes, a suit will suffice, a new shirt and shoes among other things. He had done that before, something he had to meet with clients or got to places where he had to be undercover and had to look a certain way. Usually it made him feel uncomfortable, having to dress fancy or act like it. All in all he was a simple man with simple tastes; a good book, comfortable clothes, a rifle and a target and he was a content man. There was no place for happiness in the League of the Shadows, just the acknowledgment of a well done job, if one gets out alive.

Once in a while when he wasn’t in the middle of a mission, he liked to treat himself with a glass of good whiskey scotch.

 

He parked the car a block away from the entrance of her building; it was black Mercedes of the year he borrowed for a couple of hours from Dagget.

He arrived half an hour before of what the Target and her friends had agreed on. The weather had been changing lately, it was a warm night. Barsad wore an expensive black British cut suit with a black shirt without a tie, black shoes, he only had an hour with these clothes on and he was already uncomfortable.

While in the car he noticed that it was a quite neighborhood, even with some cars coming and going up and down the streets and wonder if it will stay the same after the last stage of their operation.

Exactly five minutes after 10:00 PM a yellow taxi cab arrived at the building entrance, it was there for two minutes when the building door opened and a figure went out. Barsad couldn’t help but look at her up and down, the light ball from the cornice alight her from above, the Target wore a dark long sleeve dress, it fitted her so tight like a second skin, had the dress been in a lighter color and she might as well be naked because he could see every curve of her body. The dress reached her thighs showing a couple of toned legs in high hills. She wore her hair down in soft waves. 

She walked to the taxi when a blonde head stuck out and said something that made the Target to turn around showing how the dress showed her back bare, down to her hips. 

She got in the taxi cab and it drove away, he followed suit.

Fifteen minutes later they have reached its destination, it was a night club with a fancy name written in neon letters, there was a line of people trying to get in and two bouncers in the front door.

He saw them get off the taxi, the other woman was the bride to be, who wore a golden short dress and her hair down.

From his car he saw the two women talking with the bouncers, one of them checked a chart a second they gave them an affirmative nod and let them in.

He’d seen these kinds of places all over Europe, they only way one gets in is if you had a reservation, knew someone, if you were rich and or famous, or if you waited in line hoping for the bouncers to take pity of you. 

They probably knew who was who in Gotham so this time he will pretend to be a rich man from England. It was all you needed was an expensive suit with a car and a watch to match it, and an act like you owned half of the world.

He parked the Mercedes just in front of the entrance of the night club and handed the car keys to the usher boy and headed to the bouncers walking very relax, he stood in front of them with a little arrogance.

"Good evening." he said with his British accent, of course of bouncer already noticed what he wore and drove so he was let in.

Once you crossed the door, there were stairs leading down to another door. The second he opened the door a blast of sound hit him, Barsad couldn’t recognized the melody, but it was electronic music, the night club was a high fashion place, decorative mirrors hung on the walls, the bar was at the end, lights were low, high tables were set up around the dance floor and comfortable sofa and seats XIV style around the place all pointed to the dance floor. The DJ was up in a high cabin, allowing him to see the whole club. 

Quickly Barsad identified a couple of big doors with an exit neon sign on them in both sides of the bar.

He scanned the club looking for the Target, he found her sitting in one of the sofas with five other women, he recognized the other two doctors from the cafeteria, and two other he hasn’t seen before.

He walked to the Bar and sat at the far right, right across from where they all were sitting, gaining a great vantage point to follow her with his eyes. The bartender came closer and Barsad asked for a whiskey with water. He wasn’t planning on getting himself drunk tonight.

The first thing that arrived at the Target’s table was a tray with shots, it looked like tequila, they all drank it right away making a toast. Next was champagne, he watched them talk, laugh and drink all night.

He took his eyes away for a moment to ask for another drink, by the time he returned his sight to her table she was gone; he looked around and found her and two of her friends dancing on the dance floor. They were singing the song. 

Two hours and four bottles of champagne later, they were still in the club every time they heard a song they liked they dance their way to the dance floor and move. 

A man who was sitting to his right kept stealing looks at their way the whole night, and who wouldn’t? They were a group of good looking women.

Once in a while he would look around to look less suspicious. Sometimes women approached him looking for conversation and he polite declined, he was on a mission he needed no distractions. He also began to ask for more water in his whiskey. 

There was a moment when the Target and her best friend were sitting, laughing and talking when her eyes landed on him for a second, she looked away quickly and never looked at him again. 

There was a moment when she and the bride were on the dance floor, dancing with their eyes closed making really silly movements. The song ended and it looked like they were going back to their seats. Barsad turned around giving them his back and ask for a refill, when the bartender refilled his glass he looked up he found her there, right next to him, he was surprised, but kept calm. She was trying to get the bartender attention, he found it suspicious. The club had waitresses attending tables. Then it hit him, she was there, probably for the guy next to him, who also spent the whole night watching at her table. He didn’t have the same intentions as him though. But she never looked at the man; most women would play shy when it comes to flirting.

Barsad took advantage of her closeness and studied her. She smelled good, she had big brown eyes and the subtle dark eye makeup add more drama to them, she wore red on her full lips which made Barsad watched her mouth little bit longer than necessary. Her dress wasn’t black but a deep dark purple. She had small breasts, but a well round ass. Her hands were delicate and small. The high hills made her look taller, almost reaching his 5’10 height. 

The bartender finally served a glass of tequila.

"Put in this on table’s tab." She pointed him the table and the bartender nodded.

She turned to him, brown eyes locked in blues. He wasn’t expecting that, it was the last thing he wanted; he only made eye contact with targets if he was going to fight them hand to hand. 

He wanted to look away, but he couldn’t, she was bluntly staring at him. Was it a challenge? She smiled thin and drank the tequila in one shot and put the glass down, still looking at him, then she smiled even bigger.

"Hi. I’m Caroline." She said seductively, leaning forward. 

Not shy at all. Within a second he had a million thoughts running around his mind.

"Hi." He replied feeling a little uncomfortable. He wasn’t supposed to make contact with her, little less talk to her. A silence settled between them. She smiled again and looked at him up and down, lifted a brow and walked away.

Half an hour later Barsad was leaving the night club; luckily he was sober enough to drive the car. Just when he was about to hit the gas pedal he saw the group of women leaving the club, they asked for a taxi and got in, he waited for the cab to overrun him to follow it. 

After a few minutes’ drive they got out in a small diner, he drove slowly to have a better view of the inside, they were ordering something to eat.

He decided it was time to return the car and for him go back to the sewers. He had all the necessary information about the Doctor. He just needed to see if Bane thought the same.

Getting to the command center was a relative short road from the entry point he chose. A person without a map or the advantage of being living down there for several months would get lost easily.

It was past two in the morning, it was most likely Bane would be awake; most of the operation was run by night, so they would use daytime to rest.

He went through the command center and found one of his brothers using the computers, probably hacking another company database.

"Have you seen Bane?" Barsad asked.

"He must be in his quarters, I saw him in the kitchen area a few minutes ago." He answered.

"Thank you."

It was to be expected every time Bane ate he did it alone in the privacy of his room. He had to take off the mask for that. Ever since he could remember only three people had seen Bane without it, the man who built it; who also repair it when it had severe damage, Talia and him.

He usually would take it off three times a day, to eat and brush his teeth.

The first time he saw Bane without the Mask was because he had insisted on Barsad to help him with getting an analgesic shot so he would be able to eat. Barsad thought he would found a disfigured face; it had scars all over, but not to take anybody sleeps, he also found a set of white teeth. He learned two things that day; Bane trusted him and the Mask had become a huge part of Bane identity.

Barsad knocked the door to Bane’s room.

"Who is it?" A mechanic voice answered.

"It’s me. I have more information."

"You may come in."

Bane’s room looked like the others Barsad shared with his brothers, but Bane didn’t share his. There was a big bed, a table, chairs, a pile of book on the cold floor and light balls hung from the ceiling.

He was sitting by the table injecting a shot of a strong analgesic on his left arm. In the table rested a big bowl of oak meal, knitting tools and an old book.

Bane indicated him to take a seat with his hands.

Barsad sat and waited for Bane’s analgesics to start working. He asked Bane once how he knew when the analgesics began to work and the answer was simple; he would start to feel dizzy, right there he would take the mask off.

Minutes when by Bane took it off.

"Very well, then. What have you found out?" Bane asked. One thing was seeing him without it and another very different hearing him without it. His voice would change from mechanical and strident to soft and baritone. This always upset Barsad a little.

"The doctor lives a normal life, she has no criminals records of any kind, no vices, she may have her quirks, but nothing out of the ordinary, she is a good citizen. I didn’t find anything in her apartment or her computer. She does have a strange sense of humor."

"She does? Let’s see how much longer it lasts." Bane replied. "You are probably asking why I sent you to gather information about her" Of course he was, but like with everything else he gave Bane time to explain himself.

Barsad silently nodded.

"Well, Barsad my brother, I never liked to owe no one anything, so I will return her the favor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is chapter 4. Sorry for the delay, I think. My laptop was acting out.  
> Warning: there’s a bit of strong language ahead.  
> I really hope you like this.

Caroline just arrived at her apartment after a long thirty six hours shift at the hospital. She only caught a few minutes of sleep in the on-call rooms. She already had scheduled two difficult surgeries, heart and lungs. When she thought she was going to have a mild quite day after it, a group of idiots decided to rob the stock exchange, leaving behind a trail of bodies. Some of the injured went to St. Jude near downtown; the rest arrived at the Gotham Hospital, where she worked. Not to mention the day before the hospital received several special unit members from a shooting in the Narrows.

She never minded the work, as matter of fact, she welcomed it. She loved to keep her mind busy and feel the rush that a surgery bring, but right now she needed to rest. The last thirty six hours were extremely overworked. Some of the hospital staff was having a day off.

Her interns were tired too, but they had learned a lot, and better yet they practiced working under pressure with time running out. When the life of a person was in your hands you have to act fast, smart and see the whole picture. 

The easy part was pulling bullet out, readjusting bones and closing up wounds. Others were not so simple, and right there was when you proved your worth as surgeon. How can you save someone life without causing many changing to their existence? Her interns did well. She was proud of that.

Right now she just wanted to take a bath and sleep. Maybe she would just skip the bath and plummet on the bed for the next day until it was time to go to work again.

Luckily she had a day and a half off, all to herself. He began to make plans of what to do the next day. Pay the bill, including the apartment, buy some food. Mariah’s wedding was months ago, so she and Justin already moved out of the honey moon stage. Perhaps they could go out and do something or talk, Mar always had something to whine about.

It was fall and it was beginning to be cold again, heat lasted little in Gotham City, so different from Miami, sometimes it felt like the Sun never set.

After a healthy dinner, consisting in a turkey sandwich, she bought on the way home, and a glass of milk, she was ready to take a bath. She began to undress, leaving the clothes on the floor, she barely could move her arms, she would pick it up later, perhaps after the bath, she promised herself.

She was thankful for the warm water on her body; she couldn’t wait to stumble on the bed. The bed, a cold bed, she thought.

Mostly, she missed Kevin in cold nights; he was such a great source of heat. Their relationship lasted four years, it was a good relationship, she admitted, the problem began towards the end; he couldn’t understand she wasn’t ready to slow things down and have children. They both tried to act as polite as possible to each other, it was like walking on eggshells, but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. She followed her own advice; she breathed, ate and worked each day until it started to hurt less. 

Enough, Caroline thought. Time to stop the self-pity and wallowing in the same thing. 

The good thing about being this tired, she didn’t wait much to fall sleep so she avoided start thinking about your ex-boyfriend.

She put on her sleeping clothes; an old, long sleeve, discolored cotton sweater that used to be blue and some old baggy cotton pant.

She stretched on the bed and covered with the sheets. She let sleep took over her, it took her a while to get warm and she slipped into a fitful sleep.

 

-o- 

 

A strange noise woke her up. Next she felt steps all over her apartment. Fear and anger, both crept through her. This was exactly what she needed, being robbed. Couldn’t they wait a couple of nights when she wouldn’t be home? Or at least comeback another day when she would be better rested?

She kept her eyes wide open, also her ears. She didn’t hear any sign of destruction, only steps. The apartment had wooden floor, it helped her hear the steps reached closer to her room. Trembling and making little noise as possible, she stood next to the bed. Frenetically, she searched for her purse with her eyes. She had the stone gun in her purse. Crap. She must have left it in the leaving room. She was completely unarmed.

Wait!

She had a baseball bat, Kevin bought her. She kept it behind the back-plate of the bed.

She heard her door handle turn. Sometimes she locked the door. No luck tonight. That would give a small advantage. 

She placed the bat between her legs to keep it at hand. She took her cell phone from the nightstand y dialed the emergency number by instinct, without looking and waited. The stupid call didn’t go through. She watched the cell phone screen, there was not signal. Panic increased. No signal, how could that be possible? She lived in freaking Gotham for God’ sake, there was a telecommunication tower all over the fucking island.

The door flung open and a male figure stood by it. She wanted to scream, but generally she never screamed in panicking situations. All of her instincts told her to run, scream with all her might, but the panic creeping only allowed her to stand and swing the baseball bat from left to right.

The man slowly came closer to her with his arms extended in front of him.

"Stay away from me." She shrieked.

"Miss." He started with a soft voice and English accent. "We don’t mean to harm you, put the bat on the floor and be silence."

"I said, stay away. I already called the Police. They will be here in any minute." She lied.

He chuckled softly at this. "Miss. You and I both know you couldn’t make that call. Do as I said, put the bat down and no one will be harm."

"If it’s money you want, I don’t have any with me. Take all you want and let me alone. "

"No, Doctor. I don’t want your money. Please put the bat down." He repeated.

She just kept swinging the bat. Another male silhouette peered out the door.

"What’s the matter? Can’t control her?" he asked. He had a different accent. Great. There were two men. One, she had a chance to beat down, but two?

"Don’t fret. I can handle her." He assured him.

Fuck. What is it these two idiots want? They didn’t want any money; they don’t look like common burglars. 

Wait a minute. The man in her room called her doctor. He knew who she was.

The worst of the scenes began to fill her mind. She was going to be raped and killed. God, this wasn’t the way she was supposed to leave this earth. As if it was possible, her panic increased and she felt revulsion in her stomach. She wanted to vomit.

The man kept on walking towards her.

"Go away or I will smash your head. Believe me, I know exactly where to hit so you don’t get up from the floor, ever." she said, gathering all the courage she had left, trying not to sound as afraid as she really was.

"Now, that will happen only if I allow it." He moved towards her with great speed catching the bat mid air with one hand. Caroline struggled to make him release the bat, but it was in vain. She held the bat with her right hand and swung her left fist from behind to hit, but he also caught her wrist mid air. Without her two hands holding the bat it was easy for him to take the bat from her grip. He maneuvered and spun her around until she was facing the wall. He used one hand to keep her there and his leg to hold her still; with his other hand he closed her mouth. She tried to fight out of it, but couldn’t. Not only was he taller than her, he was stronger and she didn’t have any kind of training against this.

He kept her like that for a while until she stopped struggling. Like a father waiting for a child to stop a tantrum. The idea of him mocking her like that only made her angrier, but she couldn’t keep up the fight.

"Good, you are calm now doctor." He whispered in her ear. "Now, we could do this the right way or the wrong way. As I said before, I have no intention of harming you, but it doesn’t mean that I might not be forced to." He finished. She felt nausea.

"Very well, these are the rules, if you promise me you will be silent and won’t try to escape, you will reach our destination conscious, instead if you decide not to listen to me, I could use some force to silence you and believe me, you don’t want that." 

Her mind began to work faster. Destination? Oh no. It cannot be. He was kidnapping her, but why?

"Do you understand me?" He asked. "Nod your head if do."

She complied and slowly nodded her head.

"Very well." He moved away from her without releasing her. He still held her against the wall. She felt him tying her hands, after this, he finally released her wrist just to grab her forearm. 

The man walked her out of the room, where the other one stood, waiting for them. The new guy was just a little bit taller and less built than the one who held her. 

She began to take notice of everything; they didn’t use anything to cover their faces, she could see the shape of their heads, their voices sounded very clear. The dim light filtered through the windows allowed her to confirm it. 

Even though she couldn’t see their faces clearly, she did notice some of their features. Her main captor apparently had brown hair; he was taller than her, straight nose and a British accent. 

The other one; was a bit taller and bald.

She saw small shiny reflexes coming from their sides. Fire arms she guessed, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t want to put that theory to test. Run from here, in a small space was not a good idea. She would wait to be outside the building, there were cars and alleys. She had a better change to lose them there. She could kick him and run, find a place or a phone and call the police. 

"I know you are a brilliant doctor, a cardiovascular surgeon, so I advise you not to do anything stupid, such as trying to escape. Like I said I have strict orders not to harm you and my boss is not kind of man one would be incline to disobey. So for the well being of both, I hope you don’t try anything rash." He warned her. The lasts words were spoken mere inches from her she felt his breath in her face.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you think I give a fuck about what happens to you?" she spat at him.

"Ah, ah. I told you, be silence. We don’t want to wake up the neighbors; they will need all the rest they can get." He joked.

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

The bald one closed the apartment door behind them very slowly. They went down the stairs until they reached the lobby. All the time he held her by her forearm. He wasn’t hurting her, but his grip felt strong, like iron. She gasped when she saw the doorman sitting unconscious with his head on the desk. They had killed him.

"You killed him." She whispered in fear.

"Don’t worry, he is not dead. He’ll wake up in the morning with a headache." 

Just outside the building a black van wagon was waiting for them. There was a driver inside. She saw his figure. The bald man opened the van’s door for them.

A feeling of defeat settle within, she knew the moment she got inside the van she would be lost.

She was shoved inside it by her captor, which made her snap out of her little stupor. She claimed in against her will. 

The bald man sat on the passenger seat in front and made an indication in a foreign language to the driver to start the van.

The back of the van had not seats, so she and her captor sat on the floor.

Apparently they didn’t seem to mind her watching where they were going, they never covered her eyes, she could see through the glass all the streets they were passing by. This didn’t make her feel any better, but worse. If they didn’t care it meant she was as good as dead. The whole idea made her shudder again and the nausea she felt before came back even worse. 

"Where are you taking me?" She ventured to ask.

"You’ll see." He answered.

Nobody talked again for the whole trip.

A few minutes later the van stopped in a dark and desert ally. They all got off the van. She was guided through a back door of an abandoned building, all windows were broken.

The door led to stairs heading down. She could barely see. The pathway was dim lighted. By the end of the stairs was another hall, but shorter. They stopped in front of a big reinforced metal door. She turned around to face them, refusing to continue. The other two men were nowhere to be seen, only she and her captor.

"I can assure you I will not harm you." He kept insisting. He took a key out of one of his pockets, opened the door and pushed her inside.

The place was completely dark. She felt him moving behind her and heard a click. The room illuminated completely. It was a white fluorescent light. She narrowed her eyes; it would take a moment to adjust.

She turned to watch him and this time she could see him well. As her first assessment; he had brown hair, and a straight nose. He also had blue eyes and had a look between amusement and vacancy. Like he was half remembering some old personal joke. He also looked like it was weeks ago since the last time he slept. Even though he didn’t wear a military uniform, no one she would remember, anyway, what he wore gave her the impression of a uniform or perhaps was the way he held himself. He wore cargo pants and a vest covered in high caliber bullets, and a fire gun in his left side.

"This will be your room for a few days." He spoke. "There’s a bed, you have water on the table. That door leads to a bathroom." He paused. Caroline was so focused on him only when he spoke the second time she understood what he said. He looked familiar. "I will come back some time tomorrow."

She looked around; on the table was a lamp, a bottle of water and a chair.

"It is not what you are used to, but it shall do for now." He said.

"What the fuck do you know about me?" she raged at him. Anger was sweeping through her body. Her life just changed in matter of minutes because of him and he claimed to fucking know her.

"I know one thing or two. Now, I suggest that you to sleep, you had a very agitated day." He paused. "And night." He pointed the bed at her.

The son of bitch was treating her like a child. How dare him.

He came closer and turned her around. 

She had seen him somewhere, but couldn’t remember. 

He took a cutter out of his pocket and cut the plastic cuff off her wrists. Only when she felt her hands free she noticed how fast it was, her wrists had a red strip that hurt.

She turned back only to watching leave.

He smiled at her. Definitely she had seen him. This not knowing was starting to bother her. 

"Good night, Dr. Alvarez." It sounded like a mock. He closed the door behind. She heard the door lock. 

Alone, she examined her surroundings. The high walls had not paint, no windows, only a vent system far too high of her reach, even using the table. Besides she didn’t have the proper tools or anything to screw it out of the wall. The door, as he said led to a bathroom, it wasn’t painted either. The bathroom had a sink, toilet and a sad excuse of a shower. On the sink was a towel, a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap.  
She walked to bed and sat there. She took a moment to register all that just happened. She was kidnapped by three men. She had no idea what was going to happen next to her. The fact that her kidnapper assured her that he will cause no harm didn’t sooth her one bit. Why would she believe him?

After all the crap she had been through, this happens to her. She could be raped and killed. Tortured. Panic and nausea invaded her again. She ran to the bathroom and vomited her guts out. She washed her mouth clean in the sink.

She tried to calm herself a bit. What was what Jackson always said? You had to look at the whole picture. 

The whole picture.

She was alive and she wasn’t harm, not yet. Her main captor seemed to know things about her. Perhaps if she knew what they were after, she would leave unscarred out of this. It wasn’t money, he told her and she didn’t have enough to make a ransom. Maybe they wanted information, but what could she know so important to them? 

This wouldn’t last long, as soon as she doesn’t arrive to work her colleagues were going to suspect something wasn’t right and Mariah probably would start a search. So, she was alive, she still had hope.

Still something wasn’t fitting in. Something was out place. In order to have higher probabilities of a success surgery one need to know all the details, one doesn’t want a surprise when someone is wide open and has one’s hands inside a person.

She began to feel dizzy, she drank some water, perhaps he was right and she needed to sleep. Now that she was quiet and ran out of adrenaline, she felt tired and sleepy again.

She turned on the battery lamp and hit the lights out. She walked back to the bed, lay in it and tried to rest. Somehow the softness of the sheets made her feel angry again. She wished if she was able to fall asleep, she would wake in the morning leaving all this behind like a vivid bad dream.

Her head hurt, and so her wrists. She took deep breaths to calm herself and relax, she wished she could stay awake, but the lack of energy didn’t allow her and she fell asleep.

-o-

She woke up with a start. For a moment she didn’t know where she was, it took a couple of seconds to remember everything. She was still tired, but at least her head didn’t hurt any more. She sat up. The lamp poorly lighted up the whole room and it hit her.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch." She cursed loud.

She remembered her kidnapper now. He was Handsome from the Club. The one who didn’t move his eyes from her all night in Mar’s bachelorette party. She went all the way to him and he didn’t do anything, that’s why he never made a move, he wasn’t interested in her, not in that way anyway. He was following her, but why?

"Fucking son of a bitch." She cursed even louder and plummeted back in the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read, enjoy and review.
> 
> See next chapter and thank for reading, the favorite and the follows.


	5. chapter 5

Caroline woke up with a hammering headache, her mouth felt ashen, despite the knot in her stomach she was hungry, how could she not, she threw up everything she ate. The battery lamp was still on. She didn’t have her wristwatch on her, and for the lack of windows in the room she couldn’t tell what time of the day was. The break of dawn or some point in the morning, she guessed.

Her head still spun from last night’s events, she had been kidnapped. What bothered her most; she didn’t know what was next. 

She got up from the bed and headed to the bathroom, taking the lamp with her to find the light switch. She washed her teeth and her face, the water was really cold. She would catch pneumonia if she dared to bathe with it. She shook her head, she was exaggerating. She slowly walked to the other end of the room and hit the lights, and again, the bright lights hurt her eyes.

The floor felt cold on her bare feet. The place looked like an old stockroom, with cold grey cement walls and floor. She sat in the chair next to the table and took one huge gulp of water, her stomach roared and raged in hunger, she needed more than water, but right now dehydration concerned her more than starvation. 

She sat there for while and lost the track of time, thinking about everything and nothing specific, all at once. Her headache worsen, she was tired of thinking and wondering. She needed answers. 

Her kidnapper said he will come today at some point, she hoped he would bring something to eat and perhaps some shoes.

Suddenly, she had a simple, but bright idea that might help her get out of this place. Last night, so she guessed, the only one who knew exactly where she was him, there was no one else with them.

She laid down on the ice cold floor, put her ear close to the door, she would hear him approaching and maybe with a strike of luck her plan would work. The cold from the floor made her headache subdued. She stayed like that for a while and her headache was almost gone when she heard strong steps coming closer. Quickly, she got up and turned the bathroom lights back on, and hid on one side of the bed; from that angle was difficult to see where she was. The bed was parallel to the door.  
She heard the clank of the door lock and the metallic sound of the sliding door. His steps began to fill the room, a tray sliced on the table. Food. She closed her eyes and wished not to be in so hungry.

The sniper saw the bathroom lights on, but he couldn’t hear a soul in it. Maybe the doctor passed out, it would be normal if she did. Her body and mind had a lot of stress from last night, if so, she was lucky he arrived on time with some substance.

"Dr. Alvarez." He called. No one answered. Barsad began to suspect something was up. He frowned.

He kept walking towards the bathroom. If she didn’t answer he was going to enter the bathroom and she’d better be unconscious on the floor. He wasn’t happy to begin with, acting as a caretaker, especially if she was to act like a spoiled child, but then again, he had orders to obey.

"Dr. Alvarez." He called once again. 

Silence.

Barsad put his hand in the door’s frame and looked in, but the doctor wasn’t inside. He saw a figure moved in the corner of his left eye.

Perfect. Caroline thought when he stood in the bathroom door. She ran from where she hid, fast as her tired legs allowed her, she never saw back. Freedom. She was about to reach the door when an arm snaked around her middle, pulling her back. 

How the hell? 

With one arm he pulled her up until she couldn’t touch the floor with her feet. She could hear small grunting noises coming from him. Immediately, she started to trash, kicking the air and hitting his arm.

"Let me go." She raged. But he didn’t complied. He walked away from the door. He tried to use his free hand to keep her from hitting him. She felt the bullets from his vest, pressing her skin through the cotton fabric of her sweater. She grabbed her hand and bit down hard. 

"Argh… Bloody hell." He loudly yelled. They struggled like that for a few seconds, he was too busy trying to control her and release his hand from her mouth. She used this distraction and took a fire arm from his holster. She released him. He realized she took his gun and put her down. 

Quick, she turned and pointed the gun at him with both hand, it felt heavy. Unfortunately she didn’t bite hard enough to tear flesh, so he was quickly on guard with both hands extended to her. She was trembling, her eyes were big, filled with panic, her chest heaved from exertion, her knees were about to crumble. For every step she took back she took one forward. Caroline needed to finish this quickly. She needed to leav…..

Fast as lighting he took the Glock from her hands, and with the same speed he put back in his gun holster.

They stood her eyeing each others, blue locked in brown. She was heavy breathing; wide big eyes looked at him. He laughed internally. She looked so different from the woman in the club months ago, her hair was a wild, there were brown bags under her eyes and she was barefoot, she still had the same defiant look on her eyes from that night, but this time she wasn’t flirting with him. 

In very few occasions Barsad dissented with Bane, even when he didn’t agree with him he still carry the order to term. Right now he wished Bane had chosen someone else to do this particular task. Had he been the one in the ally that night and she would have been found in the dumpster with a bullet in her head. Being a keeper was the last thing he thought of when he joined The League of the Shadows.

"Who are you?" The doctor asked him with a frighten tone, pausing after each word. She stood there unmoving, narrowing her eyes. She was smart, he gave her that, had he been slower she would be free and out of the building, and now she just realized he wasn’t a simple kidnapper.

He walked past her and closed the door and then walked to the table, he pushed it until it was near the bed. On the tray he brought was a sandwich wrapped in plastic, very calmly he unwrapped it. It was a chicken; when the delicious smell hit her nose her stomach growled so loud he turned to look at her, by the steam coming from it she could tell it was still hot. He took out a knife and cut the sandwich in half.

"You know Dr. You shouldn’t have attacked me, all that struggle worked me up an appetite, not to mention you bit me, and here I was being nice, bringing you food. Now you shall share it with me." He mocked nonchalantly. It almost made her cry. He sat on the chair and with one hand he gestured her to sit down. She refused; he was not going to tell what to do. She angrily took her eyes away from him. 

"Please sit down, I do not wish to eat alone." Barsad was sure she was hungry, it was past midday. The Doctor needed to understand that in this situation she wasn’t in charge and if she wanted to survive long enough, she would have to play by his rules. Her freedom ended the moment Talia and Bane decided to take over Gotham, but that information was not hers to know, neither his to disclose. 

He looked at her again, standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. He clenched his fists tight and relaxed them. She was being spoiled. He stood up and walked to her.

"I am trying being polite here, please." He said. "Be a good girl and sit down. Just cooperate with me."

He was standing close to her now, almost invading her personal space. Caroline was not willing to give in, no matter how hungry she felt.

He smiled thin for her, vacant blue eyes turned cold and threatening. He grabbed her underneath her arm with an iron grasp bringing her close to him. Their faces were less than an inch of distance; she could feel his breath in her face. She blinked.

"It seems the words spoken last night did not reach your ears." He said softly, almost sweet. "I specifically told you we could do this the easy way or the hard way; the easy way is you doing as you are told. The hard way is me making you. Within time you will learn that I am not used to be this soft." She was expecting to be yelled at not this soft spoken baritone voice, this only made her fear increased and settle like a heavy rock inside her. She gulped still looking at him. 

"Was I cleared enough for you?" He asked.

She nodded. He held her fast by the arm and without looking away he made her walk and sit on the bed facing him. 

"Much better, don’t you think? He sat on the chair. Like civilized people." That last statement snapped out of her little induce trance he had her in and let out a dry laugh.

He took half the sandwich and handed it to her, Caroline looked at it warily. Her kidnapper noticed it and let a soft sigh out.

"I have already told you. I have orders not to harm you. You can eat it. You are smart don’t make me repeat things. It does not please me."

Caroline took a small bite at the sandwich, it was probably the hunger talking, but right then it was the best thing she ever tasted. Because of her dehydration she took a sip of water to be able to chew and swallow. 

"Why are you doing this?" Her voice was harsh. 

"Feeding you?" He mocked.

"Kidnapping me?" She flatly corrected him. He acted like he didn’t listen, and took a bite at his half of the sandwich.  
"I am not authorized to give that information. I am sure you have many questions and they all will be answered in time." He assured her and took another bite.

She wanted, needed answers now not later.

"I know you." Caroline taunted him, trying to make conversation; maybe she could get some information from him that way.

"I doubt that." He said dryly and looked down at the sandwich in his hands.

"I saw you at the club, the night of my friend’s bachelorette party. You spent the night watching me. You are Handsome from the Night Club." 

The sniper looked up at this comment. Handsome from the Night Club. That was new he’s been called many names before, handsome from the club wasn’t one of them. He didn’t know what to think of it. He was half amused and half annoyed by this."I see, you remembered me." He replied. 

"Yes, I bet the club wasn’t the only place I’ve seen you. Have I?" She theorized and took another bite.

"Well, you are right about that, but you were too distracted by the conversation with your friend to spare me a second glance." He confessed. 

"So you’ve been following around, where did you see me the first time?" She dared to ask.

"At the hospital." He told her and continued eating.

At the hospital, so this could be something related to a patient, but she couldn’t remember being in some patient’s family bad graces, but then again neither could Justin and he was shot by a patient’s relative. As much as she wanted all of her patients to live, sometime death outsmart her, it wasn’t her fault she always did everything she could and sometimes a little more. 

"Ahem." She cleared her throat. "Did you or who you work for lose someone?"

Barsad was dumbfounded by this question. "You need to know that I did everything within my power to save that person." She continued her eyebrows furrowed concern in her voice and deep sorrow in her eyes. "I can’t imagine what you are going through." She finished.

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked. He was curious now.

"If you tell me the name of the patient and if you want to know, I could tell you."

"That very nice of you, but you are confusing me, and my boss as well." He clarified.

"Then what the hell you kidnapped for?" She screeched at him.

"You are hard of hearing. I’ve told you, all your questions will be answered in time, but not by me."

She felt silent and continued eating. Barsad waited for her to finish and cleaned the table taking the tray with him. 

"If I feel like so, I might return later to bring you something else to eat and more water. Now be nice. I will see you soon…..maybe." He said calmly.

Caroline wanted to kill him, the food wasn’t enough and she couldn’t get any answers from him. What the hell was going on?

He did come back later; he brought her water and a bowl of oak meal. She didn’t try any trick this time. She needed all the food he would bring. He didn’t eat with just stood there and watched her. She asked him the time and he said it was around eight. At night, she guessed.

-0-

The marksman finally left the abandoned building. He was tired and had a lot to do, in the upcoming days the final stage of the operation would be at full display. The last couple of days had been very busy between, he and few of his brothers making sure Stryver got save from getting the Wayne’s fingerprints Miss Kyle stole from the Wayne’s Manor, and the attack at the Stock Exchange, even though he didn’t participate he had to supervise everything, he had a lot in his mind. Not to mention the doctor’s removal. 

Bane sent them to make sure Stryver and Dagget didn’t do anything stupid and in case something would arise. It was a good call as it turned out Miss Kyle took with her Congressman Gillie, who had gone missing for days. By the end of the delivery all adjacent street and alleyways were filled with specials swat units for the Congressman save retrieving. 

In the next days things would get a little complicated in Gotham City, and he was supposed to be alert. 

By the time he arrived to Dagget’s building his hand hurt less, but bruises were starting to form, it would take a day or two for the marks to disappear. The doctor had a strong mean bite. 

Dagget’s building was filled with his brothers, all acting as securities guards or construction workers, he nodded hello to the ones he encounter in his way up to the penthouse.

Cream wall with golden details adorned the penthouse, rich mahogany wood door and expensive paints hung from the walls. It was all too much. Dagget was one of those men that measured himself by what he possessed, he would not spare much time to throw his banal worthiness at your face. 

He found Bane sitting by the fireplace and Dagget’s body splattered on the floor, he couldn’t see any blood.

"You broke his neck." It wasn’t a question. He knew at some point Bane and Dagget’s personalities would collide, but not this soon.

"I did." Bane stated. "He tried to give me orders." He continued. "How is the doctor?" Barsad raised his right hand to show him the teeth mark.

"She bit me." He told him. Bane raised a skeptical eyebrow as he stood up. "She also thinks we removed her from her apartment because she couldn’t help a patient." Bane remained silence at this.

Bane took Barsad’s hand and examined it. He saw the bite marks already red, it almost drew blood. 

"She is feisty." Bane conceded, turning Barsad to see the back. "Do you need it to be tended?" He asked. It always struck him how Bane could be such coldblooded assassin, fast and lethal and so resolute in decision making and yet once you gain his trust, he could be a very caring man.

"No, thanks. It shall be fine in a couple of days." He paused remembering the episode with Dr. Alvarez. "She is also smart, after she gave me this print, she took my arm and pointed at me, when I took it out his hands I think she suspected I wasn’t your average delinquent." Bane looked vaguely impressed.

Barsad looked at Dagget’s body again. "I will call someone to come to get rid of it." He gestured to the corpse lying on the floor. Bane slowly nodded.

-0-

He would come twice a day to bring food and water. Caroline would sit or lay in the bed, bored out her ass waiting for him to return, they would sit across one another in complete and deafening silence. Sometimes he brought his own food and ate with her. They did this four more days. 

In the fifth day Caroline was sitting up in the bed with her back reclined to the wall, counting the cracks on the walls, she was already bored counting her hair, and every time her mind strayed away she had to start all over, so she gave the cracks on the wall a try, 524 cracks in the left wall 483 on the wall across. She was about to start counting the cracks on the right wall when she felt the earth trembling a little, the table and the chair moved a few inches to the right, she stopped and gulped hard.

She chuckled. "This is getting better and better." She muttered bitterly to herself. "And now I am talking to myself." She looked up at the ceiling. "Great, I’m going crazy." She waited and waited, but nothing happened. She sighed and began to count the cracks in the right wall.

The kidnapper returned later that day. She looked at him and looked down at his hands and had not to tray with food in them. She swallowed hard; he was going to kill her now. No doubt about that. She stood up. If this was going to be her end she would face it. She opened her to say something, but he beat her at it.

"Dr. Alvarez I’ve come to take you to your new quarters, you shall be pleased, it has better accommodations, I am afraid the food will not improve." He explained to her with a smug in his face. 

And she remembered, he told her this place wasn’t permanent, but she was too busy being scared to believe him. "Where are you taking me?"

"Don’t worry you will like it there and you will have entertainment."

"What about my questions?"

"Ah, yes. They all will be answered. Please follow me." He paused regarding her. "And don’t try to run or yell nobody will help you."

After their little struggled with her failed attempt to escape, she decided she would play by his rules for a while until she could find an outcome that favored her. He gestured the door with his hands and she followed through.

As soon as they went out of the building real cold hit her and she started to tremble, she wasn’t properly dressed for this weather, even though she was clean, she still had the clothes from the night she was kidnapped.

They got inside a truck; it was just the two of them. The streets were empty and a ghostly silence spread across the neighborhood, it was completely out of place, normally Gotham would be very lively at night, one would have to look up at the sky to know it is in fact evening, but right then, Gotham looked like a ghost town.

The truck stopped in front of and tall building, it belonged to some Gotham millionaire whose name she couldn’t remember. The entrance was full of armed men, what they wore made resembled to what Handsome was wearing. 

She was grateful none of them spared a second glance. They went in the elevator and stopped at the twenty first floor. There were no armed men here. Like the last time he guided her to a room. It was so different from where she had been, the walls were richly painted in cream colors, it was furnitured with a comfortable looking sofa, a dining table with food on it, beyond that a bed stretched with clean lining, a flat scream T.V. and a closet. 

He passed her by, heading to the closet. There are some clothing in here, the bathroom I’ve filled it with necessities, there’s food in table, please eat and change your clothes. We will back in an hour. He said flatly.

We…

As soon as he left she did as commanded, she was hungry after all and she desperate needed a bath and a change of clothes. To her surprise she found hot water in the shower. After she finished and put on some fresh clothes, she felt better. 

Exactly one hour later someone knocked on her door. 

"Are you decent, Dr. Alvarez?"

"I am." She replied back.

She turned to see and there he was the masked man from the alleyway. He was standing there in the entrance in all his height, he came in and then Handsome came in behind him. 

"What are you doing here?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all my readers, you are amazing, please leave a comment. I really want to know how I am doing and if you want to help or give advice conctact me.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Hecate from the Darkness.


	6. chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the hierarchy of the military, by analogy, I am a soldier, I do not pretend much. I ask for lightweight when I walk. I speak not, just listen and follow.
> 
> I am a hopeless case, my grandmother swore. I retired Cupid, tired of failure. I am a soldier, I do not pretend much. I die on Sundays, I fall in every step.  
> Ricardo Arjona.

Bane explained to him the reason behind his decision of keeping the Doctor safe until the explosion. Ever since he met Bane, he knew one thing, he was a fair man, he never liked to be in debt to anyone, and he always kept his promises. 

Bane was in his way to the doctor’s chambers to talk with her, he wanted to deliver her the news about the states of the situation himself, let her know from now on he was in charge of everything and most of all, Barsad knew Bane wanted to tell her about the bomb himself as he did with the rest of Gotham’s citizens. She should count herself lucky; she would have protection until the moment arrives. Others will have to succumb to cold and hunger, not to mention the human behavior when they were on the loose and trying to survive. 

Bane looked calm, as always. Very few things could breakthrough that stern, calm humor of his. Grays eyes regarded him as if looking for objection on his part. Bane always had the control of everything but as any good leader he would hear advices and think upon them. Barsad had already voiced his opinion concerning this particular situation, but Bane omitted his input and went through keeping the doctor safe until the very last minute. Barsad was convinced he chose this because the night he had fallen from that fire escape she had done anything in her power to help Bane, she put herself in great danger by going in that alley. Bane always find himself interest in unselfish acts of kindness.

It was an autumn day, so Bane wore his gray trench coat and fingerless gloves to keep little warmth. Even after all those years training at the mounting where the main quarters of the League of Shadows resided, Bane’s body haven’t accustomed to colder weather, he had spent most of his childhood and part of his adulthood deep in a prison in a country with dry weather. 

Technically, he and the doctor never officially met. She had no idea who was him and what he did. They never exchanged names at the alley that night. Barsad was looking forward to see the doctor’s reaction at the news. He never found pleasure in other people misery; to him every target he killed was just that, a target. So this was all new to him, knowing and spending time with a target that will be killed not directly by him, but by proxy in Gotham’s destruction. He guessed there was a first and last time for everything. 

Exactly an hour after he brought her, Bane was knocking at her door. It was probably the first and only time he would concede her this act of politeness.

"Are you decent, Dr. Alvarez?" Bane metallic voice sent a ripple of noise through the hall. This particular floor was occupied by him and some other brothers, all Bane’s highest trusted brothers. 

"I am." She replied back.

Slowly Bane opened the door and went in; he almost took all the hole of the door space. Barsad entered the room behind him. Her back was to them. She was already wearing new clothes and by the state of the plate on the table, she also had eaten. Her hair wasn’t as wild as before. She looked fresh, well as fresh as someone can get after being removed from her apartment.

"What are you doing here?" she asked frowning, she was very confused. She stared at Bane height and he could see the shift in her face when it changed to fright. She was probably assuming the worst. She only spared one glance to him and her sight went back to Bane. As Bane approached her, she took steps back. 

"I see you remembered me." Bane strident voice frightened her a little more. She gulped hard, very visibly. 

"Y... You are a hard man to forget." She stuttered. Never taking her eyes off him. 

"Dr. Alvarez, Caroline. Is that right?" She nodded in affirmation. "Please you should have a seat." Apparently she didn’t understand what bane told her because she stood in the spot watching at him. Bane turned to look at Barsad and he walked to her grabbed by the shoulder and sat her on the chair. She never took her eyes from Bane, for all he knew she might have never acknowledged his presence. He went back to stand next to Bane.

Bane remained stood with his hands in the lapels of his trench coat. "Dr. Alvarez." He began. "After you helped me in the alley that night, you caused a dilemma. You are yet to know me, but in time you will recognize that I am a fair man, I like balance, I seek it and I deliver it. As we speak I am trying to restore it." He paused to look at her. She was paying him close attention. He continued. "I hate to be in debt with anyone. Unfortunately for you, or perhaps otherwise, I owed you a favor, and right there is where my dilemma lies. So after giving it some thought I have decided that until my stay in Gotham City is over, you will be under my care." He finished.

Barsad watched the doctor’s face getting more confused by the word; she was blinking and looking at table, trying to make sense of Bane’s words.

"I… I… I am sorry, but I don’t believe I understand. What do I have to do with you d… delivering balance?" She asked even more confused.

"I see where you might be confused. Have you watched the news? The electricity in this building is functioning; you should be able to turn the television on." There was a hint of amusement in Bane voice, but he was just making sure she wasn’t informed by other sources.

"No I haven’t turned it on."

"Then I suggest you do." He gestured her to take the remote control on the nightstand. This time without any hesitation she stood up, took the remote and turned on the T.V. Barsad was completely sure that all the news was about how a group of mercenaries took over Gotham and threatened the whole City with destruction unless they would do as told. 

The T.V. flicked and quickly she looked for a local news channel and there it was, the video of Bane and his brothers interrupting an afternoon Football game to inform the public about the new situation, a Banner at the foot of the screen read: 

GOTHAM CITY HOSTAGE BY MERCENARIES.

MASKED MAN THREATS GOTHAM WITH NUCLEAR BOMB. The banner changed.

ALL BRIDGES HAD BEEN BLOWN OUT TO CLOSE THE GOTHAM.

Bane flipping Dr Pavel’s neck. 

After she stared at the screen for a few minutes, they played the video three times. She just stood there looking at the T.V. screen, her eyes were wide open like full moons, the rest of her expression was unreadable, as if she was taking her time to understand what was happening. She slowly picked the remote up and turned off the screen, and turned to look at them, the expression on her face had not change yet, still processing everything. 

The giant of a man took a few steps closer to her. Caroline took a step back. Everything that was going on hit her right there, but she was still on shock to make sound and the cogs in her brain were turning faster than ever and all of the sudden she felt even more tired and old. 

"As you see I have taken the city and plan on giving it back to its citizens. Dr. Alvarez from this moment on you shall be, in a way, my guest, I am offering you shelter until all of this is over." 

Guest? From everything he said was guest was the only thing she could process.

"I am afraid my visit today will be short I am needed elsewhere, I hope you find this comfortable as you tried to make it comfortable for me months ago in the alley way. Barsad, here will fill you up on the rest of the arrangements."

He threw one last glance at the room and returned his eyes back to the Doctor. Bane looked at him and nodded, as always he understood quickly, he should explain the rule to the doctor. 

Barsad watched Bane leave. He set his eyes in the doctor’s unreadable face again, and wondered if she had realized she was wearing her own clothes. Dark long cotton pants and a white sweatshirt. 

"The rules are simple." He began. "It will be difficult for you to leave this room or this building without anyone noticing, there are dozens of heavy armed men like myself coming and going out of this building I doubt you will make it to the lobby. If you managed. "He emphasized. "To get past that point you will most likely get raped and/or murder. Food will be delivery to you by me three times a day, this is a very demanding operation, sadly Bane only trust me to keep an eye on you, so for your own good, you will behave. Are we clear or do I have to repeat everything again?"

As he finished the expression on her face shifted, she was sporting a frown now and her eyes were locked in his, she looked exactly as he was expecting she would react to this news, for a moment there Barsad thought she was about to pass out, which was odd because she didn’t strike him like the type to do that.

"You did this, you …. You…. You are going to blow the whole City out of the earth. " She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Look, a week ago I was kidnapped by you." She gestured her hand towards him. "I am cold and still hungry, I haven’t held a scalpel in days because all of that I will be having some mild to strong PTSD." She shrugged. "Right now I am very, very angry, but most of all I am tired and I need to go to bed, being kidnap it’s not was not what I had in mind for my day off, so whatever it is that you have going on with your bomb." She threw her hands in the air. "I will deal with that tomorrow. Ok? I am used to handle a lot shit and pressure." She nervously chuckled. "But this is too much so I’m going to bed." 

She turned her back to him and walked to the bed. She tumbled herself in it. Barsad stood there blinking; he was expecting, wailing and tears, a nervous breakdown, but not this. People reacted in different ways to this type of news, but at the end it ended in the same way, perhaps he hasn’t analyzed the whole situation yet or was in complete denial. 

He watched as she grabbed the sheets and covered herself with them. She looked at him again frown deeper turned to give him her back, Barsad sighed, he suspected he will have to explain everything to her again.

"Oh and handsome, since I can’t leave this place, and as your boss nicely put it, I am a guest, I would like to make a phone call, today. Now, please leave." 

Barsad wanted to chuckle, he truly did, she was telling him what to do. But what came out was annoyance. He walked towards the bed and stood at the food of it. He breathed deeply and reminded himself that he had orders not to kill this woman. He grabbed the white sheet and yanked it up, hard; she let out a loud scream. 

"What the hell? I’m trying to sleep." She complained and sat up and faced him.

"It seems like you have yet to understand I don’t like to repeat myself…" 

"Oh, I get it." She interrupted him. "You and your boss not only kidnapped me, but also the whole city and if we don’t do as we told we’ll go Ka Boom. But the big guy said that I was a guest. And as such I would like to be alone, believe or not, one does not get to become a surgeon with a slow wit, but apparently it’s a requirement in your line of work. So again, as a guest, I wish to make a phone call, today." She was two feet away from him now. Out of the many things she learnt in her years as a practicing doctor, was to notice who was in charge and who wasn’t, and yes he had a gun and even him, with all his fast ninja moves, wasn’t in charge. 

Caroline was angry and tired and it wasn’t a good combination, she could be particular stubborn, not matter the situation. She wanted to slap him across his face, but she knew better, perhaps tomorrow she would be more docile and do as she was told, but right she was worried about her friends and her mother and wanted to let know that was alive. She also wanted to go back to hospital as soon as possible. She had matters to attend, her research, she thought, needed to be finished, before this. She hoped Mariah had done as they both had accorded. 

Bane never said anything about roughing her up just a little; after all she had bitten him, perhaps it was time for payback. He narrowed his blue eyes at her and took her upper arms and dragged her out of the bed and held against the wall. He knew he would leave marks on her arms and they would bruise. Good. She was wailing now. Her face was contoured in pain. 

"You don’t tell me what to do." He barked at her.

She looked at him straight in the eyes. "No, but the big guy does." She was trying unsuccessfully to get out of his strong grasp. "And he said I am a guest." She spat at him. "Let me go." 

He pushed her against the wall again, this time a lot harder. He didn’t like this, to have to deal with this woman; he wanted to go back to the unknown targets. He released her and she almost fell on the floor, but she was quick to stand by her own and walked past him taking the discarded sheet with her and climbing back to the bed.

"Don’t forget my phone call."

Rarely, he would get irked. People usually did as he told them because they fear him. But he didn’t have that effect with Dr. Caroline Alvarez.

Bane had asked him how it went with her, his reaction was a soft single laugh followed by silence. He also told about the doctor’s request of a phone call, to which Bane complied, to the excuse that other people in Gotham were with their loved ones, so she should have the same treatment. After the doctor abduction, he had confiscated some of her personal belongings such as some of her clothes, but not her cell phone. 

They held all the lines of communication and electric power. Right now one of the telecommunication was open so grabbed a phone and headed to the doctor chambers. When he entered all the lights were out, he sincerely doubted she was sleeping, maybe she was finally coming to terms with her new reality. He turned on the lights.

"Doctor, are you sleeping?" He asked.

"Did you bring the phone?"

"Yes, I did." He watched her climbed out the bed. She stood in front of him. He was holding the phone in his right hand, she was about to take out of his hands, but he was faster and moved his hand away from her reach.

"You need to be polite with me." For some reason he wanted her to beg him for it.

Her face became unreadable and stoic. "Please." She said without the pleading tone he was expecting. He stared at her and waiting for a change in her expression, but it never happened, he guessed that toneless please was she would get from her, for now. He handed her the phone.

Finally." She said.

She started dialing the numbers. 

"Would you mind? I would like some privacy." She told him. Again she was telling what to do. He was going to leave her alone, but now he decided against it. 

"I have orders to remain in here until you finish the call." He lied to her. She rolled her eyes as she waited for somebody to take the call and turned her back on him.

"Mariah. It’s me Caroline…Yes, yes. I am fine…" Pause. "I know I saw in the news. I was kidnapped…I imagined that you would do so. Are you inside the island?" Pause. "No. that’s great. What about Jason? He is with you. Good… Who else is on mainland?" Pause. "They are… Novak, the Chief and Vitelli are at the hospital." Longer pause. "Mariah, stop crying… Sto... I am not dead yet." She shouted at the other person on the line. "Mar… Mar…" She was trying to get her attention. "Dr. Robertson." She shouted again, with a firmed demanding voice. "Stop crying. Did you do what we said we would if something happened?" Pause. "You extracted all the files from my email. Good. Now I need you to call my mother and tell her I’m fine. I will find a way to talk you again…. Yes, I am fine, just tired and angry." She turned to glare at him. "Mar… I don’t think I can through this without alcohol." She sobbed. 

Barsad stood and walked to her and gestured to finish the call.

"Mariah I have to go…. Bye. Take care." She hung up and gave the phone back to Barsad. 

Not even a thank you. He thought. Deep down he wished for this woman to find her death before this was over or else these will be the longest five months of his life. He had far more important things to be concern about, like tomorrow they were suppose to take over Black Gate and bring living hell to Gotham. All the prisoners there were imprisoned for life with parole because the Dent Act. According to the letter Commissioner Gordon had with him when he was captured by one his brothers, Dent wasn’t the white knight Gotham thought him to be, so Bane wanted to let the People of Gotham how corrupt their system is and correct this mistake. He already had gathered enough weapons to defeat an army, all of it were going to the prisoners hands courtesy of Wayne Enterprises’ Applied Science. 

Mr. Wayne had a lot of military equipment that never made the market, he wanted to test some of them, especially the rifles, perhaps break a few long range personals records. 

He walked to the door to leave the Doctor to his own devices, he would return tomorrow after the Black Gate. A smirk graced his face while he regarded her up and down. Her eyes threw him knives. "What are you so smug about?" 

He broadened his smirk. "I was wondering how long will it take for you to realize you’re wearing your own clothes?" She immediately looked down to what she was wearing and grabbed her pants and sweatshirt to study, her face was completely in shock and her already big eyes became larger like plates. Her cheeks reddened in anger. "I guess I am not the only one with slow wit around here."

He quickly shut the door behind him on the other side and he heard the doctor screaming all kinds of cursing words at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to review.


	7. Chapter 7

Caroline felt the rays of the sun warm the skin of her arm. At some point in her sleepless night she opened the window shades when she was desperately looking for something to do. She couldn’t sleep at all. After the Insomniac robot who kidnapped her had leave making her feel slyly like an idiot, she tried hard to get some sleep but the news of the whole city about to blow up don’t just rest at the back of one’s head at will. There was a fucking bomb, correct, a fucking nuclear bomb in the city that could go off at any moment. Images on the television and the headlines kept playing in her head round and round like a never ending movie. At least her mother and Mariah knew she was safe, sort of. It wasn’t until three hours later when everything started to sink in that she had a panic attack and threw up what she had eaten. Her hands were shaking, her breathing was short and frantic, heart rate increased. She needed something to keep her mind off of things. 

After she finished throwing up she cleaned up the bathroom from any evidence, not wanting to appear weak in any way, she turned up the television and surfed the channels until she found a movie and settled for it. She tried hard to get into the plot, but her mind kept drifting to the currents events. The movie ended and another began. By the end of the third movie Caroline saw the sun coming up through the windows shades, a minute later the electricity went out. She got out bed and looked through the window, she couldn’t tell specifically which floor she was in, but it was a high one because the cars in the streets looked so small. It wasn’t a window that could be open, but still she enjoyed the sun in her skin, and on her face. 

The city looked so strange, this was Gotham, it wouldn’t matter what time of the day or the night it was it was always moving, it was fill with life and people running, walking, going up and down the city, trying to be somewhere or to be somebody. The noise could be unbearable along with the traffic, every vehicle sounding the horns at the same time, people screaming at each other. But right now it looked like the bomb already went off leaving behind all the buildings intact. A ghost town. That was Gotham City now, all thank to this lunatic and his minions. But would he want to do that. Who wakes up one day and think; hey you know what, I’d like to blow up a city. What does he want? He said he delivers balance, that’s bullshit, everybody wants something, he is probably taking his time to see what the government would do. How come the police couldn’t stop him? WHO THE FUCK LET THIS SHIT HAPPENS? Caroline stopped her track of thoughts, her head was starting to get dizzy, lack of sleep, tiredness, and hunger don’t mix well with over thinking. 

She continued staring at the buildings and the city as far as her eyes let her. She stayed like that for long while. She was trying to come up with an idea to get out of this situation. She wanted to escape, maybe go back to the hospital and stay there, but she didn’t know the situation there, perhaps she should get more information first. She knew this would be useless at the end if Bane pushed the button, but she would rather spend her last days in the hospital and not in the company of this people. She wanted to know if her friends inside the island were fine. 

 

She was lost in her thoughts when the crack of a door opening caught her attention, it was Insomnia guy. He was carrying a food. She went back to look outside.

“It’s you.” Caroline drawled.

“Yes, it’s me. Who else were you expecting?” He mocked.

Caroline rolled her eyes at her own stupidity.

“One can be hopeful.” She replied.

“Hope won’t help you these days.”

“Right.” She squared her shoulders. “I want out.” she began. “I don’t want your Boss’ help. Since he said I was a guest, well then, I wish to leave.” 

“Are you sure about that? There’s chaos out there.” He looked at her disheveled self, her once draw back brown hair looked wild. 

“Yeah, but whose fault is that?” She finally turned to look at him. He looked as if his night was not better than her, well; apparently being one of the bad guys doesn’t give a good night sleep.

“You all bring this on yourselves.” He said coldly. 

“Pardon?.... We? What are you talking about?”

“You and the rest of this city, the people living in it. All your greed.” He said.

Caroline furrowed her eyebrows with a hint of amusement, he might be right many people in this people could be pretty greedy, but you could always find someone to show you otherwise. It was not like she was this big positive person who believe that every human being in world was good, she knew better, but she also seen the worst and the best of the best of people. She knew normal people tended to do more good.

Barsad wasn’t stupid; she was looking at him as she knew something he didn’t. He wanted to prove her wrong. 

Her facial expression changed again, a much serious one. 

“I still want out; I want to go to the hospital? If I am to die I don’t want it to happen here surrounded by you lot.”

“You are oddly serene for someone who knows is about to die.”

“So are you.” She mocked. “But your thing is more of the suicidal kind.” She continued.

True was she wasn’t serene about dying, she just had chosen a very pragmatic way to look at it, for now. She didn’t want to think about it. That was a worst torture. She still had lot of things to do and to live. She still have a lot to learn from medicine, after all in this field you always keep learning and improving, but if there was one thing Caroline was already a master of, was avoiding feelings and how to pick them. She learned it the hard way. 

“What are you and your boss planning to do with, you just can’t keep me here all day, trap in this room. Why am I here?”

“You are here, because of one reason. You made the mistake to help the wrong person.”

“As always Jackson is right.” She whispered to herself.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” She bit back.

“If I were you, I’d get used to this.” 

“Being held against my will when I didn’t commit a crime.” She scuffed. “As a matter of I actually helped someone.”

“Life is not fair.” He mocked. “You helped the wrong person.”

She looked him up and down. He really was annoying with his off putting self, so fucking nonchalant as if he was doing merely some robotic job. No thinking or caring about the consequences. Just autopilot mode. She wanted to slap him to get any other reaction than a carefully placed automatic smugness. He was rehearsal. 

She sighed. “So you are going to be my own personal nanny?” She baited him. “How should I call you? Mary Poppins, Nanny McFee?”

“My name is Barsad.”

“I don’t care.” She lazily said.

“You should curve your tongue once in a while, or it could get in trouble.” 

“I should curve more than my tongue.” Her hands curved into fists. Oh how good would be to hit him. 

“The fact is… You can keep me here forever.”

“It’s not forever.” 

“Whatever, until the bomb goes off.”

“Yes, we can.”

“But you won’t.”

“Are you planning to end your own life Doctor? I never thought you to be of that kind.” 

“Very funny, but I’m not the suicidal one in this room.” She lifted an eyebrow. “And I want to speak with my friends again.” 

“You are asking too much, for a very smart woman you often seem to forget where you are standing.”

“All I know, you keeping me here won’t do anybody any good. And I know exactly the situation am in.” 

“Good. Is better if you know it or you are going to make me ensure you remember it until the very end.” He threatened her in a calm voice. “I have to leave, you should eat.”

She looked at the food, it was a hot bowl of oak meal, after throwing up all the substance she had last night she should be hungry, but she wasn’t. All she wanted was to be out of that room.

She was looking at him now with her big brown eyes, settled fury and a disdain staring back at him. He was used to it, but never this strong, he figured it was because who stared back at him like this didn’t stay around this long.

He, as always, had more important things to care about, Bane planned to release all the prisoners from Blackgate today and he had to gather all the weapons he could find, luckily, the Police Department underground had left plenty when they left for the sewers, but still, he had to help run all the operation. He didn’t have time for her demands or her eyes.

He exited the room leaving the doctor alone with her anger. Bane was expecting him outside the building already inside in one of the tumblers that used to belong to Bruce Wayne. Barsad could only see the uppers part of Bane’s body, the first stop was Wayne Enterprises, or what was left of it. The Police Station, and finally Blackgate. 

When they arrived Wayne building, as expected it was chaos and debris from the previous drillings, he remembered the faces of all the high executives when Bane high jacked the building, how having all that money couldn’t save them from a man determination, how loyalty couldn’t be bought, only Fox and another old man were brave enough to stand and follow Bane. They all used to feel so safe in their mansions or tall buildings, he wonder how they are feeling now. 

He packed all the weapons he thought regular citizens could use and left.

The inside of the Police Station was a reflection of the City, it was completely empty. Barsad and Bane knew that all the officers weren’t trapped in the sewers; the ones who were lucky enough were hiding in their home, pretending not to be cops. Bane pretended not only to arm to prisoners unjustly sentenced to a life in prison because of a law created to honor a crazy and corrupted man. He also wanted to arm anyone who felt wrong by the way of system in which the rich took everything and left so little for the poor. So the weapons in the Police Station weren’t enough so part of the weaponry well hidden in Wayne Enterprises was also going to be used. 

By the time they arrived to Black Gate a horde of reporters was waiting for them, he guessed somehow they’ve been followed, he would have to look in to it later, now he had something to do.

Bane got out of the tumbler, on top of it all powerful and imposing like so many time before. His hands holding his coat with the grace of and old British gentleman, he also spoke like one.

“We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you... the people. Gotham is yours. None shall interfere. Do as you please. Start by storming Blackgate, and freeing the oppressed! Step forward those who would serve. For and army will be raised. The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests, and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure. Courts will be convened. Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed. The police will survive, as they learn to serve true justice. This great city... it will endure. Gotham will survive!” 

After Bane finished Barsad entered BlackGate along with some of his brothers knocking down some of the guards standing between them and the prisoners. One of then the key’s keeper was behind one of the many bar doors. Barsad looked at him and made a gesture for the keys, the man extended his shaking hands with the keys at the end of his fingers.

“Thank you for being so cooperative.” Barsad said very politely, and took them out the man’s hands. 

He handed the keys to his brothers and one by one, they opened all the doors that kept the inmates inside, while he and two more waited for the prisoners at the entrance and handed weapons to all of them. These men will get justice, real justice before it all ended. The greedy fat cats would get theirs also.

By the time of the last inmate was liberated a riot started and some of the people listening Bane speech in the homes joined the rise up and began to sack all the cities rich houses and apartments. This was exactly what Bane wanted, the people getting justice, getting back their City.

The citizens would kill themselves and those alive by the end of it, the bomb would take care of them, including him.

I am not the suicidal one in this room.

It was true, she wasn’t the suicidal one, but him, and he was fine with it. He learnt long ago that every person needed to find something to fight and live for, and ultimate to die for. Bane who had save his life so many time, that had give him sense and meaning in a chaotic world, he would gladly die for Bane and his cause. 

Barsad made peace with dying before joining Bane, back when he enlisted in the British Army, he thought then that the Army would give structure to his life, and it did, for a while until the day he understood that sometimes they did more damage because they were mere puppets in the hands of politicians that could care less about the life of the powerless. And then he found Bane or Bane found him. It was so easy to leave everything behind. The army, what was left of his broken family. 

He was slowly dying by alcohol; he wasn’t yet an addict when Bane found him in a bar. He needed a sniper for a mission, Barsad had deserted army month ago and was somewhere in India. Bane hired him, he took an oath to quit the heavy drinking and that was the beginning of every, you could say they had something in common; they both were out of a group of men where they didn’t fit in anymore. 

And here they were about die for something they believe in, even if it included Talia’s petti vengeance against the Batman or Bruce Wayne. 

He would not deny, at least to himself, at the beginning of this when Bane put forward the idea of nuclear bomb seemed too extreme for his own taste, but Bane was their leader and would do as their leader commanded. Even if it meant his own life. After all he only had one reason to live and to die. The League. The only thing that had make sense in a long while.

**Author's Note:**

> There you have it.  
> Read, review, give advices or complain.  
> Hecate from the darkness.


End file.
